In Another Place
by PaperKat
Summary: Sequel to The Weight of Knowing. Andros is having a hard time dealing with resent events and looks for a quick fix.


In Another Place

Written by PaperKat

Owned by Starhawk

"Sometimes I just want to scream at them to just go ahead and do it and get it over with." 

He watched fascinated as Ashley stabbed at one of her apple slices with the knife she had used to cut it. Her companion did not reply and the young man that was observing her was sure that she had not expected a response. He was glad to find her so far away from her teammates, something that was very foolhardy and completely Ashley, it would make what he came to do that much easier.

"I really don't know what their problem is." She continued unabated as she popped a bite in her mouth and chewed around her words. "I mean Andros has finally gotten a clue and now _Zhane's_ the one that's running. I mean it's not like they don't want to do it, so why don't they just get it over with!"

There was a low, almost subsonic, sound that surprised the hidden figure greatly, not because it had come from the cat-like Zord beside Ashley, but because it seemed to be trying to answer her. He wasn't sure if the noise had been comforting or disheartening to the Yellow Kerovan Ranger because she seemed to smile and frown at the same time.

"At least I think they both want each other, not that they'd talk to me about it." Ashley dropped the slice that she had been raising to her frowning lips back into the bowl. "Not that they talk to me much about anything anymore."

His chest clamped tight when he saw her forlorn expression turn bitterly sad. Ashley wiped at the moisture that didn't have a chance to fall from her eyes. There was another deep sound emanating from the animal shaped machine beside her and Ashley patted what would have been the cat's tail.

"Did you know that there's a place out there where all three of us are together and happy?" She started to draw invisible patterns on the smooth metal surface. The tightness in his chest inched up into his throat and he found it hard to breathe waiting for her next words. Could it be possible she wanted this as badly as he did?

"I mean they weren't 'together' together like we're trying to be, but they seemed so comfortable with each other and happy." She placed her palm flat against the Zord and then rested the side of her face to the cat. "I saw them on the Eltare security files and I couldn't help but wish we were like that."

Her softly spoken lament drew him in. He just couldn't stand it anymore. He had to go to her, help her. He knew that it had only been a few days, but it felt like an eternity since he had been with her last.

"If I thought it would help I'd go up to Zhane and give him a swift kick in the rear and tell him to get over himself and get into bed with Andros and get it over with. I'm so tired of everyone being miserable because they aren't sleeping with who they really want to."

Ashley turned her face up to the cat and while there was an answering rumble the Zord didn't move and continued to face away out into the valley. Somewhat comforted by the idea that the giant machine was not completely sentient, he started moving forward.

"Maybe me and Zhane should work out a visitation schedule, you know, split the weeks up." She joked weakly with barely a trace of a smile. "I have him one week, Zhane has him the next, he gets the Kerovan holidays I get the Earth ones." Ashley sighed heavily, shaking her head. "Maybe I'm just being stupid."

"It's not stupid to want to be happy."

Ashley whirled around and threw her hand to her chest.

"Andros!"

Andros approached her slowly, completely intent on getting closer, while Ashley seemed to be trying to melt into her Zord. He had no doubt that the dark pink flush to her face meant that she was replaying all that she had said in confidence to the cat. He had seen that guiltily look so many times before, catching her and Zhane huddled in a secret conference. Andros' eyes started to burn, he had thought he would never see that look again.

"Wha… what are you doing here?"

He didn't stop walking or acknowledge her question, and only stopped when he was inches from her. Andros took in every different and familiar feature. Her sun lightened hair that fell long behind her shoulders. Her snug fitting tawny uniform that seemed to suit her so much better than gray. Her soft brown eyes that looked at him so anxiously and hopefully. Her full bottom lip that was caught between her teeth, waiting in a way that he had never seen before.

"Ashley."

Her name slipped unbidden from him and he smiled at the confusion that shown plainly from her face at the sound. Andros didn't have to think about his next move. His fingertips were pressed lightly against her throat, his thumbs were stroking her cheekbones. Andros' heart was pounding just thinking about the fact that Ashley was this close, allowing him this intimacy. Before he knew what was happening she was leaning into him and her lips touched his.

He would have pulled back in surprise if he hadn't of been rooted there in shock. He had easily pieced together from Ashley's one-sided conversation that this was the way things were here, but knowing it and experiencing it were two completely different things. Ashley had complete control of the kiss and did not seem to notice his initial lack of participation. By the time her hands came to rest on his lower back, Andros forgot all of his trepidation and mirrored Ashley's enthusiasm.

It was very easy to fall into the emotion and the feel of the moment. Andros suddenly realized that she tasted exactly like all the dreams he never knew he had. She was a piece of a puzzle that hadn't been missing exactly but had been put in the wrong place and he only now saw how much more beautiful it was now.

Ashley was kissing him as only a lover could, with knowledge that he had not personally given her. He winced with a slight pain of conscience of what he was planning and Ashley picked up on it immediately. She started to pull away, but Andros was unwilling to give up this new sensation.

He buried his hands into her hair and took full command of the kiss. She started slightly at the switch in control, probably because it was something that didn't happen often if his double was anything like himself. Between one breath and the next Ashley surrendered.

An euphoric kind of peace overwhelmed Andros. Ashley was here, in his arms alive and warm. The intense cold that had enveloped his soul upon seeing Ashley slump lifelessly into Astronema's arms dissipated. The tears that had been at bay for days finally fell. All of the profound pain and sorrow that he had repressed and buried and ignored came roaring to the forefront. The sob that tore through him caught them both unaware.

When his legs gave out he dragged Ashley to the ground with him. With his arms locked around her shoulders and his face buried in her neck, Andros cried as he had only done once before. In a battle that had nearly cost them the war, Zhane had gone missing.

On an identical shoulder with skin that smelled just as sweet and arms that had held him just as strongly, he had cried until the tears wouldn't come anymore. The next morning they had found that while Zhane had sustained heavy injuries, he had survived, but for that one night Andros had only had his Ashley and somehow she had gotten him through it.

Andros clutched Ashley tighter and somewhere in the back of his mind he knew that he was frightening her, but he couldn't stop himself. Her half heard words moved warm air through his hair as she rubbed his back, neck and shoulders. He heard himself mumbling to her not to leave him, to come with him and knew Ashley didn't understand why he was saying what he did, but it didn't stop her from promising to be with him always. He just kept crushing her to him, terrified that if he eased up, even a little, that she would be gone. 

"Andros, please tell me what's wrong!"

There were only moments for Andros to realize that Ashley had just yelled at him before she was limp in his arms. Confusion warred with panic as he tried to understand what had just happened.

"She's alright Andros, I just tranqed her."

Andros shifted his position on the ground so that Ashley was now cradled in his arms and lap. He smoothed away her hair from her sleep-softened face. Reassured that she was only slumbering, he looked up at Zhane.

The Silver Ranger was crouched on the ground in front of him. He was staring at his hands and the empty tranquilizer syringe he was rolling between his fingers. 

"What are you doing?!" Andros demanded hoarsely. Zhane pulled his head up and glared right back.

"Nothing you weren't planing on doing. Or were you planing on just throwing this Ashley over your shoulder and carrying her home?"

Andros didn't acknowledge the truth of Zhane's words and instead returned to watching Ashley's peaceful features. There was an identical tranquilizer in his own pocket as part of his contingency plan, but that hadn't been his first mode of action.

"I was going to ask her to come with me."

"What were you going to say Andros?" Zhane asked heatedly. "'Hey, Ash. My ex-roommate is dead and I was wondering if you could come take her place.'"

"No!" Andros fairly screamed as he sheltered Ashley's head to his chest, trying to physically buffer her from Zhane's insensitive words.

"I… I didn't mean that, Andros." Zhane sighed and tried to place his hand on Andros' shoulder. The striped haired boy jerked away. 

"Andros, listen to me. This isn't going to work…"

"She isn't happy here." Andros told his lover, interrupting Zhane before he had a chance to tell him something completely logical and unsolicited. "She said so herself. She said she wanted to be with us."

"Yeah, I'm sure she did."

A little startled by Zhane's ready and sincere agreement, Andros didn't protest when Zhane came around behind him and forced him into his arms.

"How many times did our Ashley say she was going to space us out the nearest airlock, hmm?" Zhane started to stroke Andros' hair on the opposite side to where he had his cheek pressed against his head.

"Was there ever a time that she didn't threaten to move back to the Megaship when I would snoop through her stuff looking for presents? And remember the time she screamed at you that she wished she had never meet you because of that really stupid comment you made about her fighting abilities?"

"I didn't mean that the way it had sounded!" Andros tried to protest and Zhane just laughed.

"You knew that and I knew that and once Ash calmed down she knew it too. My point is that this Ashley may be mad at her Andros and Zhane right now but it won't last. You know as well as I do that Ashley usually has to vent verbally before she can forgive."

"But they've separated themselves from each other and now none of them are happy. They're ignoring her. They're making the same mistake…"

Andros quickly cut off his tirade but it was already too late.

"They're making the same mistake we did, I know."

Again shocked at Zhane's outright agreement, Andros just stared into his lover's sympathetic and knowing eyes as he continued. "You were in love with her."

It was a simple statement, not a question. There was no jealousy, nothing accusatory in Zhane's tone, if anything he sounded guilty.

"How long have you known?" Andros asked.

"If you're talking about how long have I known you were in love with Ashley, probably since the day we first came to this dimension and I met the other Andros." Zhane was no longer looking at him, but at the unconscious girl in his arms. "If you mean how long have I known that I might have been in love with her too, only a few days ago."

"Zhane…"

"This won't work you know." Zhane told him hastily cutting him off. Even though he wasn't looking at him, Andros could see the pain and he wondered if it had been there since that horrible afternoon and he had been too wrapped up in himself to notice.

"She isn't the same Ashley. She isn't the Ashley that hides your data pads or short sheet's our bed. Her heart may be the same and if such a thing is possible her soul may be the same, but that still doesn't make her our Ashley."

"But she could be happy with us and we won't make the same mistakes."

"Do you really want that Andros?" He tried to answer, but Zhane was too quick. "Do you want to take this Ashley to a world where she's in constant struggle for her life? Do you want to take her to a place where all of her childhood friends and family are gone or missing? Do you want to take her away from something, no matter how dysfunctional it seems, that obviously means a great deal to her?"

He knew that Zhane was right, but he didn't want to listen. Andros had thought that he had been prepared for the possibility of his Ashley's death, then he had found out how wrong he had been. Was it too much to ask for a second chance? In his heart of hearts Andros knew that it was too much. Too much to ask of Ashley, too much to ask of this world.

Ashley started to shift in his arms. She attempted to speak, but the effects of the tranquilizer prevented her from making and sense. Andros tried to calm her, but it wasn't having the desired effect. The more he tried to soother her the more she struggled.

__

Andros… Zhane… what's wrong with me?

Andros and Zhane exchanged startled looks at hearing Ashley's strong if not groggy mental voice. In all the time that they had known their Ashley she had never spoken telepathically to them. Of course they had never tried it either, between the war and daily living the subject had never come up. The only thing that startled Andros more than hearing Ashley's inside his head was hearing himself, and the forced calm voice he often used when he felt out of control.

__

Ashley?! What's wrong? Where are you? 

Andros watched Zhane's eyes widen to almost twice their size when his own double joined in with his mental voice harsh with worry.

__

Ash, speak to us.

"I think that's our queue to leave." Zhane told him even as the Andros and Zhane of this world continued to try and make contact with Ashley.

"We can't leave her here like this and undefended."

"I don't think that's going to be a problem."

Andros followed Zhane's gaze up to the narrowed eyes and laid back ears of Ashley's Zord. The sound that started from the cat now could only be described as a growl. Zhane slowly stood behind him and Andros followed suit, carefully laying Ashley on the ground and stepping away. As soon as they were back far enough, the Zord's huge tail lifted up and then laid back down around Ashley like a circular wall of protection.

There was a sparkle of sound and a dark lavender light eliminated the inside coil of the tail. The surprises kept coming. From behind the tail they heard the princess of evil gasp Ashley's name and then in a blaringly loud mental voice demand that the rest of the team come to the clearing.

Realizing that speaking aloud or telepathically would be overheard, Andros and Zhane gestured to each other to move farther into the wooded clearing so that their trip home would not be seen or heard. Just before activating the device that would return him to his own dimension, Andros looked back towards where they had left Ashley.

A warm hand cradled his chin and made him look away. Zhane's eyes were full of liquid sympathy and his small smile told him plainly that his lover understood what he was feeling. It was almost like loosing her all over again. Tonight they were going to help each other through this, and every night after. With hands firmly clasped the two of them headed home to a world that wasn't quite as hopeless as it once had been, but still just a little too big and empty.

end


End file.
